What does homologous use mean? Navigating the arena of clinical use of a biologic such as stem cells or differentiated cells made from stem cells can be challenging. There are many important issues including what defines “minimal manipulation” of biologics such as cells. One particular issue that is critically important and has drawn less attention […]
Time to bone up on homologous use in the stem cell field Read More »
What the heck is going on with Intellicell Biosystems, Inc. (SVFC, also SVFCE), a stem cell corporation run by Dr. Steven Victor? Why are some on Wall Street seeming so bullish on the company lately? What’s the real story and the facts? What is the key background on this company? Wall Street has been buying
Wall Street Weirdness Over Stem Cell Biotech Intellicell (SVFC) Read More »
When you want to both know the real history of the pluripotent stem cell-based biotech industry and perspectives on its future, there are only a handful of people to turn to and one of them is definitely Dr. Michael West, CEO of BioTime. I’m doing a several part series of blog posts on a lengthy
BioTime CEO Mike West Interview Part 2: Geron & hESC Read More »
In a shocker, Japan’s 2nd largest newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, published an editorial yesterday saying that iPS cells are being pushed too fast to the clinic for economic reasons. The piece was bluntly entitled “Too much of a rush for clinical trials with iPS cells”. Asahi Shimbun, with a circulation of 10 million, is taking a bold
Asahi Shimbun Editorial: iPS Cells Rushed For Economic Reasons Read More »
Where do things stand today for using stem cells to treat COPD? Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a relatively common, often debilitating illness, which has a major impact on the people of the world. In the US alone, COPD costs the country almost $50 billion a year not to mention untold suffering. Most of
Can stem cells help COPD? Read More »
By Dr. Susan Lim A record 4100 delegates attended the 11th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), held at the Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston from 12-15 June 2013. Co-sponsored by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the Meeting featured 7 Plenary sessions including a Presidential Symposium, 20 concurrent scientific
Delightful overview of ISSCR 2013 by guest blogger Dr. Susan Lim Read More »
Is Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) on the road to cure Multiple Sclerosis (MS) using stem cells and specifically MSCs? Some folks seem to think it’s quite possible, but I remain skeptical. Still there have been some interesting developments. ACT has a relatively new patent filing for a mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) product that was just
ACT patent filing for MSCs: of Dancing Mice & Multiple Sclerosis Read More »
Remember Stemage? They are the cosmetic company with Kathy Ireland as their spokesperson whose anti-aging cream includes extracts from human stem cells. In Part 1 of this blog series on Stemage I gave some key background and raised some important questions. I also sent some questions to the company and now more recently to the
Stemage Stem Cell Anti-Aging Cream 2.0: Interview with Dr. David Scharp Read More »
Human cloning is not so far-fetched any more. Cloning of the Star Wars variety where new copies of people (although they would be babies, not adults of course at first) are produced is something I believe that we’ll see in the next 1-2 decades. Why would anyone bother to clone? Fame. Money. Vanity. There are
Fertility clinic floats idea of human cloning for infertility Read More »
In this post I propose that researchers and patients advocate together to pressure the stem cell clinic industry to collect and publish such data. Why do I make such a proposal? Many thousands of patients have bought stem cell interventions from non-compliant stem cell clinics. Thousands of others are considering doing so. You can see
Call to patients: let’s advocate together for stem cell clinic publishing Read More »